Track Time with Toggl

For many lawyers, tracking time is more difficult than actually doing the task at hand. Although it can be tedious, unless you bill flat rates, it is something that everyone has to do.

Fortunately, there are plenty of programs that can help you track time and hopefully make it less tedious. If you are looking for something new, try out Toggl.

How it works

Toggl can be used on your desktop, through your web browser, or on your smartphone. You can use it for free, although the paid plans for more bells and whistles (although many lawyers may not need them). The cheapest paid plan starts at $5/month.

If you access through the website, Toggl keeps track of what you are working on, what time you started/stopped, and the total duration. You can also assign tasks to various projects and add tags.

Toggl also has an autopilot feature. If turned on, it will learn what tasks are equated with a certain task or project and automatically track your time. Lawyers, however, tend to use a limited number of programs and use them for almost every case, so this feature may not work well for attorneys.

If you need to track time, give it a shot

One of my biggest gripes about other programs that help track time is that you can only track one project at a time. I am not interested in double-billing, but many times I will switch between tasks, or stop a task and go back to it later.

If you download the Toggl desktop app, your timer can have multiple tasks open at the same time. For attorneys who like to (or need to) switch projects quickly, this is a really great feature.

Unlike other timers, it also shows when you started and stopped on a certain task. For whatever reason, this extra detail really appeals to me.

Randall sues debt collectors that harass consumers, assists consumers with student loan issues, and defends consumers in debt collection lawsuits. He is also an attorney instructor at the University of Minnesota Law School.